TV Review: Terra Nova 1.5, "Bylaw"

rating: 2

The jolly folk at Terra Nova get to experience their first murder this week, when a man is killed by a dinosaur that was locked in a room he opened. Seems like a bit of an odd way to off someone, but ok. Once Jim (Jason O€™Mara), puzzles out that there€™s murder afoot, his job is to track down who killed the man in question. It€™s interesting seeing him do his police work. It€™s just too bad that he does it in a way that makes him look like a real idiot. First he figures out that the victim€™s ID tag is missing. He, the commander (Stephen Lang), and his dogsbody, Washington, head out to find it. This leads to some rather bad dinosaur CGI, though it does serve to showcase the Australian terrain rather nicely. Filming in Oz may have been one of the best choices the production staff made so far. They capture the dinosaur that ate the tag (and the victim), cut it open and get the tag out. Turns out there€™s a photo stored on the tag of the victim and a woman he was having an affair with. Jim and company track down the woman and while they are interrogating her, her husband comes home and promptly confesses to the murder. Now this is the point where any cop who is good at their job instantly stops and tries to figure out exactly why this man is so eager to confess. A police officer in this instance should question, question, question, every single detail of the man€™s confession until he€™s absolutely certain there is no way that anyone but the confessor could have committed the crime. This is especially necessary in a place like Terra Nova where, apparently, there€™s no such thing as trials, lawyers or indeed any kind of judicial system other than Taylor€™s orders. Makes one wonder how other, less nasty crimes were handled. The husband is eventually sentenced to banishment, but by then Jim has finally remembered how to be a police officer. He goes to the man, gets the truth out of him, and then sets out to find the real murderer. I was very unimpressed with this episode. The idea of investigating the colony€™s first murder is interesting, should have made for a good story, but it didn€™t in this case. I don€™t require that the show turn into a police procedural or a legal drama, but there should have been more done with it. I was pleased that there was some discussion of the fact that Taylor€™s judge, jury and executioner, and how that just might be a bad thing, but it€™s little more than lip service and the eventual outcome reaffirms the notion of a judicial system that€™s seriously broken. I was also unimpressed with the two subplots this episode. First off, Josh (Landon Liboiron), now has a job working for the colony€™s resident bar-owner/bookie/guy who gets things done. He€™s continuing to obsess over the girl he left in 2149 and acts like your basic sullen teen much of the time he€™s on screen. I don€™t find the character very interesting, and I find him really unlikable at this point. I hope they find something to do with him soon, though I will at least give the writers credit for not making him another Wesley Crusher. The other subplot centers on an ankylosaurus egg that is found. Elisabeth (Shelly Conn), discovers it has some birth defects (using a hologram to diagnose the problems. It€™s a transparent hologram. Am I the only one who thinks a non-transparent one would make it easier to see detail?), and decides to try and fix it before it€™s hatched because her daughter, Zoe (Alana Mansour), seems to think the egg is cool and nifty. There€™s a payoff to this story at the end, but it just left me completely bored. I€™m sure some kids out there might find it cool. We€™re five episodes in now, and I€™m still not impressed. Like Pan Am, this is a series with plenty of potential and, like Pan Am, it€™s turning into something I€™m only watching because it€™s part of my job. I really hope the show finds some direction and does so fast, cause as it stands, I€™m really looking forward to the season finale in December.